For larger delivery vehicles, such as a tractor-trailer, for example, a common practice is to support or carry a small fork truck at the rear portion of the trailer. When the tractor-trailer arrives at a delivery location, the small fork truck is then lowered onto the ground and can be operated, by the operator of the tractor-trailer, to unload a desired portion of the shipment and deliver the same to the current delivery location. After this occurs, the fork truck is then reloaded and secured onto the rear portion of the trailer so that the tractor-trailer can then be transported to the next delivery location to make another delivery. This process is repeated numerous times during the course of the day until the entire contents of the tractor-trailer are delivered to the designated delivery locations.
Another common practice is to attach a small crane, or some other loading/unloading device, to the delivery vehicle. The operator can then utilize the crane or other loading/unloading device to facilitate both loading the delivery vehicle and unloading of a desired portion of the shipment at each delivery location.
The drawbacks associated with both of the above techniques of loading and unloading delivery vehicles is that the structural integrity and overall size of the delivery vehicle must be increased in order to facilitate transportation of either the fork truck or the crane or other loading/unloading device. In addition, smaller delivery vehicles, such as flatbeds and the like, which are often utilized to deliver materials such as lumber, appliances, foods/beverages, metal/steel, etc., cannot readily be equipped with a fork truck, a crane or some other suitable loading/unloading device.